about some kind of miracle or some kind of prophecy that foretells what God is going to do. And in Isaiah chapter 7, we saw in verses 1 to 9, Isaiah chapter 7, that what was happening at this time. Now, remember, the year is about 734 BC, about 734 BC. And Israel, in particular, we talk here about the nation called Judah. The southern kingdom was under attack by two nations, the nations of Aram, A-R-A-M, and the nation called Israel. Now, remember, it was a divided nation, so you had Judah on the south. Judah is under attack by Israel, so it's Jew attacking Jew, but they were two different monarchies, and the reason why they were attacking them is because Judah refused to join into an alliance between Aram and Israel to try to fight off another enemy, the Assyrian armies. And what happened is, is that in verses one and nine is that Isaiah goes out to the king, King Ahaz, and he says, Ahaz, I'll paraphrase it for you. Don't worry about this situation because you are sitting on the throne of David. You are a descendant from King David. God swore to King David that he would establish his kingdom forever. And so God has no intention of letting these two nations Aram and Israel defeat you. God has no intention of letting them destroy you so that the kingdom of David comes to an end. All you have to do is believe him. And he even told him, he said in verse eight, he said that within 65 years, Ephraim will be shattered so that is no longer a people. Ephraim is another name for the nation of Israel, the northern part of that divided nation. And so what basically what God said is, I'm going to prove to you that I'm not going to let these guys do this to you. Within 65 years, they're not even going to exist anymore. Just trust me, trust me now in verses 10 to 25. You come to another major section and in this section right here, God promises the birth of a child and he says to a has. He says he has. If you will ask me for any kind of a sign, I will give you some kind of proof as a demonstration that I'm not going to let these guys destroy you. He says, ask a sign. You can make it as high as heaven or as deep as the grave as deep as shale. Just ask me for a sign. And he has his own. I can't do that. No, I can't ask you for. I can't ask God for a sign that would be tempting God. Well, God himself had said, Ask the son. So what God says in verse 14 is, he says, I will give you a sign. A virgin will be with a child and bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel. And in verses 15 to 16, What it says is, is that before this child who is born is old enough to even know right from wrong, that God is going to bring a judgment upon those two attacking nations. So God says, I'm going to prove to you that I'm not going to let the enemies destroy you because this child is going to be born in before he's even old enough to know right from wrong. Then these other two nations are going to be destroyed. Now you're talking about within two or three years. Just believe me, I'm not going to let it happen. Just believe me. Well, it has at this point already has plans and his plan is to go and to try to call upon the Assyrian army and the king of Assyria to come and help them. And so he has no intention really of trusting in God alone. He's going to go and he's going to take matters into his own hands. Well, in verses 17 and following, what happens is this is that God says that horrible trials are going to come upon the nation. And basically, you're going to be invaded. And in verses 17 to 25, we have a description of this invasion that is going to come upon the land. And the reason why this invasion is going to come is quite frankly, because they didn't believe God. They believe that you see what you're looking at here is a situation where God promises that he's going to bring salvation and the word is certain in the word is true but circumstances on the outside didn't really look. that favorable. Now, there are going to be times in your life where things happen, and if they haven't already happened, there's going to be times come into your life where the outside circumstances you feel like not really trusting God. And you say, you know what? Forget it. I'm not going to trust God. And God would say, No, you need to keep on trusting. And this isn't one of those illustrations where you see somebody brought into a situation where they have to believe they have to have faith. And yet the hour circumstances kind of make it hard to commit yourself to believing. And the bottom line always is this. You need to trust what God says. And if it's a principle of what God says, you cling to it. Even if it doesn't look on the outside like there's a solution, even if it doesn't look like there's a solution on the outside, you cling to it. Now, tonight, what we come to in verses in Chapter 8. OK, actually, if you took this whole idea about God's judgment coming upon the nation of Judah, that whole thing really goes all the way up until Chapter 8 in verses 1 to 10. That whole idea. about the fact that they needed to trust God. They need to recognize that they can believe in him and verse nine. It talks about the fact that the enemies were going to be shattered and that the enemy nations who are trying to attack would not be allowed to overtake them. Well, we come down here to verses eleven and following and what we pick up with at this point is tonight. I want to look at about two characteristics of the sign that God spoke because God kept telling the people again and again, just trust me, believe in me, believe in me. Now, tonight we're going to look at two characteristics of the sign that God spoke. God said, I will deliver you, and there are two characteristics that we want to look at. The first one is this. It's the way that men resist God's word. It's the resistance how people don't want to believe God's Word. And then secondly, we're going to look at also at the at the judgment that comes for those who will not listen. This is kind of the theme that we're going to look at tonight. It has to do with the giving of God's Word and why men should believe it. And yet they fail to. And so consequently, what they do is they come into judgment now in verses 11 to 15. We're going to pick up with this first theme, and it's this. It's the way that men resist God's word. You'll notice that when you when you try to share the gospel, somebody how so many times people just. It's just resistant and they close down, and there's a reason why it's because spiritually speaking, we don't have a capacity to believe one of my professors used to put it this way. He said that the gospel message is like an FM message, but we are born with AM receivers. Spiritually, our heart is an AM receiver and you've got an FM message. And so sometimes, you know, you speak to people and you tell them and you show them and you explain things and you say, look, you know, here's who God is. Here's what God predicted. Here's what happened. Here's what God said. Here's what happened. Here's the prophecy. Here's the fulfillment. Here's who Jesus Christ is. And they just goes right over their head. The reason why is because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2, 14, that a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit because they're foolishness to him. You see, an unsaved person does not have an ability to listen to the gospel and to accept it unless God's Holy Spirit is opening the heart to respond. That is why prayer is absolutely essential for evangelization, because it's the Holy Spirit who opens a heart. It's the Holy Spirit who does the work. And you look at today and you look at the way that you share the gospel of people and you show them things and you say, look, you know, here's what happened. But God predicted it, you know, 500 years beforehand, 600 years beforehand. And God gives signs. This prophecy is a sign to be believed. OK, I love showing people prophecy. That's one of the things that I've always been fascinated with is saying, look, here's what God said. He predicted this would happen. And here's what was fulfilled. How come you don't believe it? And when you do this, sometimes people, they just have to say, well, they don't have an answer. You know, like this one Jewish guy that I have shared with many for several years now over here at Spires Restaurant. And, you know, I got showing him with my Hebrew Bible, showing him Daniel chapter nine and explain the whole thing. He understood it. And then, you know, when when when he saw that it said that Jesus Christ had to come two thousand years ago, and it does say that he gave a time chronology for when Christ had to come. He says, Well, he said, This would mean that Jesus had the Messiah had to come before Israel's temple was destroyed in the year seventy A.D. I said, That's right. He says. And he got thinking about it. And then the next time I saw him, you know, I said, Hey, I said, What about Daniel nine? And he says, Well, I talked to the rabbis and, you know, they said that, well, they said that, you know, Daniel, you know, may not have been written by Daniel, you know, I said, Don't give me that. You know, I said, I'm a Gentile and I believe your Bible. How come you don't believe it? You know, and this guy's an Orthodox Jew. You know, so you know what they had to do to explain it. They had to say, Well, you know, this wasn't written until after the time of Christ or something like that. And I said, No, no, don't even try that one. I mean, you know, it was translated, you know, into other languages that we have, you know, 300 years before Christ was born. So don't try to say that it was written after the birth of Christ. It wasn't. And it was written by Daniel 500 and some years before Christ. It predicted that he would come and it was fulfilled. You see, that is something to be believed. That is something to be believed. And what happens is you see that men, they're sinful and they resist God's word. And you know what they do? They resist until a tragedy strikes a lot of times, right? You know, I mean, look at the paper, right? You know, we see the whole thing. You know, you look at the headlines here that says terror. And you've got the picture here of the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon and all of these other things. And you see, you know, that, you know, something bad happens. And you know what happens here? Everybody wants to go to church. We actually had people call the church yesterday and said, Are you going to have a special prayer service? I didn't answer the phone, but I'd say, Why have a special one? We're there every Wednesday night. Why don't you come every Wednesday? You know, and quite frankly, I, you know, when everybody starts to pray, you know, in a time of emergency, does God really want to listen to him at that point? God always wants to hear, you know, hear people seek him. I know that. But does God really want people only to cry out to him when there's some kind of a tragedy and crisis in their lives? Actually, it says in Psalm 32, it says, Let the godly man pray to you in a time when you may be found, because in a flood of trouble, your prayers won't be heard. You see, people need to see God now. Well, you know what happens is, you know, something comes upon the world and everybody wants to listen. And the same thing was true 2700 years ago. OK, God kept speaking to the people century after century, decade after decade. God gave warnings and said, if you will not turn from your evil, I am going to bring a judgment. And then all of a sudden the judgment started coming and they started scrambling and trying to find an answer. Now, in verses 11 to 15, What I want to do is I want to consider the fact that people resist God's Word, and I want to look at three themes on it. First of all, you see the way that they complain that mankind, when he resists God's truth, what man does is he turns to complaints to answer the problem. Furthermore, I want to show you the cure for for this problem. How many there is a cure and a cure is turning to the Word of God. But thirdly, I want to show you the the calamity that comes. We're going to look at a complaint, a cure and a calamity tonight as we look at verses 11 to 15. First of all, notice down here in chapter 8 verse 11, because it says that the Lord spoke to me. with mighty power and instructed me not to wait walk in the way of his people. God's Holy Spirit was heavy upon the apostle. This is talking here about prophetic Inspiration, the Spirit of God was heavy upon him. You see this expression in the book of Ezekiel, one verse three, where it talks about the hand of the Lord was upon him. The idea here is that the Spirit of God was teaching Isaiah. And what he said is this. He instructed Isaiah not to walk in the way of this people. Now, you know, when somebody is mad at somebody else, you know, like, let's say, for example, you are talking to an angry wife. You know, she's going to call her husband. This man, you know, like she's man, this woman. That's that means somebody is angry. God says this people do not walk in the way that this people walks. God is very, very angry at the people of Judah. And the reason why is because they would not listen to him. What kind of things were they saying? Look at over here in verse 12, because you see the complaint. He says to Isaiah, Isaiah, you are not to say it's a conspiracy. Now, what happened yesterday? I mean, I think there was a conspiracy, obviously, as far as, you know, you know, the trade trade trade tower bombings, and that wasn't from our own nation, I don't think. But immediately, people begin to say, you know, OK, who's behind it? And there's got to be, you know, a network. What was happening, remember, 2,000 years ago, 2,700 years ago, is that they were basically facing an imminent invasion from enemy powers. And what the people were doing is they were making complaints. They were trying to find somebody to blame. Ah, it's a conspiracy. That's what's happening right here. Now you can say, well, who's the conspiracy? You know who is doing it? Some people think that King Ahaz may have been the one causing the conspiracy that Ahaz was making a big plot. Other people think that it might have been just a conspiracy in general. But you know what I think that was happening right here? I think that you have the prophet Isaiah speaking. And as Isaiah spoke, what Isaiah was telling them is this. Don't trust in foreign powers. Don't make an alliance with the king of Assyria. Don't do it, because it will destroy you. Well, right now, let's suppose that you had somebody coming to the Pentagon, or the President, and they said, it is not a good idea for you to try to make an alliance with NATO. Don't do anything with NATO. You know, right away we'd say, you know, who is this person? You know, we want to have all of our allies with us. We want to get NATO and we want to come together so that we can have lots of power. And this is what King Ahaz was doing. King Ahaz was saying, well, you know what we need to do? We need to go make an alliance with Assyria because they are the war machine. They are the toughest ones. And so when Isaiah was warning all the people and saying, don't make foreign alliances, probably they were accusing Isaiah of being a traitor. The same thing happened to Jeremiah. When you read the book of Jeremiah, you find out that when Jeremiah was speaking, Jeremiah said, what you need to do is you need to surrender to the king of Babylon. You need to surrender to the king of Babylon because God is bringing him to take us over. And if you surrender to the king of Babylon, you'll live. But if you try to fight against him, you're going to die. And right here, Isaiah is basically bringing counsel that is telling them not to try to make military preparations and not to try to make foreign alliances. He's telling them, trust in the Lord. Oh, Isaiah. Isaiah, you're too simplistic, OK? Isaiah, get a clue. You know, the real issue is that we need to take action. You know, we can't just trust in God and pray. Have you ever seen somebody do that where they, you know, say, oh, you know, no, we need to take action. Well, OK, there certainly is a thing called human responsibility where we do what we should be doing. But at the very heart of everything in your life, you have got to be trusting in the Lord. And if you're not trusting in the Lord, my friend, the Bible says you're cursed. So, at the heart of it, this is what Isaiah is doing. Isaiah is calling them to trust in God in this situation. Now, when you apply this to ourselves, let's think about what happened yesterday, okay? What's the first thing we should do? You know what we did when we came? Here's how I prayed, God, break the hearts of our people. break the hearts of our people, because all of a sudden, you know, you have, you know, people coming on, you know, this senator, you know, we are strong, we will overcome this. And, you know, the army and the military, you know, we will punish these aggressors, and we will come out stronger than before. And everything, if you notice, that was being said is, we will do this. Better that we should say, if God wills, we should. We will do this. You know, look back with me to Daniel chapter nine or not back or forward. Look at Daniel chapter nine, because I think it's very instructive when you look at men of God in times of crisis and in times of trouble. They did not pray, you know, about their own strength. You know what they did is they is they looked to God as the source of strength and they asked for repentance to the people. Look at Daniel chapter 9 verse 3. Daniel, of course, is not facing an invasion in his situation. But what was happening is that is that there was a crisis in the nation. There was a crisis and the crisis is that nobody was returning back to their promised land. They were not returning back. even though they were getting freed from other captivity. There was no broken over their sin. Daniel knew they were going to be released from their captivity very soon, and so Daniel immediately he began to pray for repentance. What he says here in verse three. It says he gave his attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplication with fasting sackcloth and ashes. Do you know why you fast? It's when you are sorry. Why do you put on sackcloth like a gunny sack? It's when you're broken. Why do you put ashes on your head as they used to in that culture? You know, just ashes and dust. It was a symbol of repentance. Daniel is broken. OK, now notice what he does here in verse 4. He prayed and he confessed and he said, Oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and loving kindness. Verse five. We have been. We have committed iniquity. We have acted wickedly. We have rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. Verse six. We have not listened to your servants, the prophets who spoke in your name. He says about God were seven righteousness belongs to the O Lord, but to us open shame as it is this day to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Jerusalem. Because, he says at the end of verse 7, we have committed unfaithful deeds. Verse 8, open shame belongs to us. We have sinned. Verse 9, but you, to the Lord our God, verse 9, belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him. You see, and this goes all the way through this whole prayer. Everything that Daniel prays is, he says, Lord, You are righteous, we are sinful. Lord, You are merciful, and we have broken your commandments. We need your mercy. And by the way, you could look at this same pattern in Ezra chapter 9 and in Nehemiah chapter 9 and in Daniel chapter 9. Three great prayers in the Bible. And in every case, what the man of God does is he comes before God and he's broken and he's praying that there will be humility and repentance among the people. You should not be praying for America to crush its enemy. Now, they deserve to be crushed. OK, and our government, I'm sure, will carry out its function and will go after them and they will deal with them. But we should not really be praying for, you know, the opportunity to take vengeance. I really don't believe that. I think what we should be praying for is that God would use this tragedy to bring people to their knees. I think that's what we need to do, because you know what? We've had this coming for a long time. You know, 1973 to 1991, 28 years. How many babies? About one and a half million a year. One and a half million babies a year. How many babies is that? 43 million, something like that. 47 million babies. That's a lot of blood. That's a lot of abortion. You know, we talk about here a few thousand people. We got a lot of blood on our hands. And you know, the only the only reason probably I would say the only reason why God has not brought a judgment sooner is because there is a little a little bit of a remnant of righteousness in our country. But we have a country that is so proud and so arrogant and so overtaken with with ungodliness that you know what? When we get it, it's because we deserve it. We should pray and you should pray that God would use this to absolutely break the people of their pride and their evil. Isn't this what happened in the book of Jonah? Think about it. Jonah went to what city? Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of which nation? Assyria. By the way, do you know that Jonah went to Assyria and spoke his message only about probably about 30 years 40 years, about 40 years here before Isaiah, just about one generation before Isaiah was on the scene right here. That's when maybe 30 years. That's when Jonah had gone to Nineveh and now Nineveh has come back. But when Jonah went to the Ninevites and Jonah said, God is going to wipe you out. You know what they did? The king proclaimed a fast. He put on sackcloth and ashes. The king of Assyria led the entire nation in repentance. and God didn't bring that calamity that he was going to bring, because they had repented. That was never OK. Now, what I'm getting to is this is that is that the thing that we should be praying for is not for, you know, for God to help us to crush our foes. But we should be praying that God would use this to break the souls of our people. Now, something else notice here in verse twelve. Come back here to Isaiah chapter eight, because He says, don't say it's a conspiracy. You are not to call it a conspiracy in regard to all that these people call a conspiracy. And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. You are not to fear what they fear. In other words, what's happening right now, Isaiah, is that you've got a whole nation that is crumbling and they are falling to pieces because of the foreign threat. He says, Don't think that way. You know what I saw in the paper today? It says that, you know what's gone up in sales right now? Gas masks. Everybody's out buying gas masks, it says at the survival stores. Within hours of opening, on the heels of the news that terrorists had attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the store sold more than 400 gas masks and 20 to 30 full-body chemical suits. Employees couldn't stock shelves with food rations. Everybody's running around now, I guess maybe there is a good reason to Have a gas mask. But what he says to Isaiah is Isaiah, you should not be thinking the way that everybody else is. What you need to do is you need to put your eyes on me. This is my whole point. OK, when you have calamity and crisis and tragedy, what we need to do is we need to take our eyes off of our circumstances and we need to put them on to God. Because if we don't, what's going to happen is if we resist God's Word and if we won't trust God's promises, all that's going to happen is a certain and terrifying judgment. So he says, don't you fear what they fear and don't be in dread of what they dread. Now, the cure for this is in verses 13 to 14. He says it is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. Holy well, of course, I believe that God is holy. You know, Bible says he's holy Isaiah chapter 6. He said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, but to regard God as holy means that you sanctify him. Remember in the Lord's Prayer, it says pray in this way. Our Father who art in heaven was the first part. Hallowed be thy name. You know what hallowed means? To regard as holy. Lord, may your name be regarded as holy. Lord, when you pray, Jesus said, pray that God's name would be seen as holy in this world. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. OK, when God's kingdom comes, guess what? This world is going to regard God as holy. This is what we're praying for. And so he says, what you need to do, Isaiah, is not be looking at all of the things happening around you, not to be falling at pieces because there's an invasion that's coming, not to be worried about this. He says, you need to regard God as holy. Peter put it this way. He said, sanctify Christ as what? First Peter 315. He said, sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart to sanctify means to set him apart. So the whole point in this is that he says, Isaiah, you keep your eyes on me. Trust in me. Do we really trust him? You see, when things start falling apart, whether you're talking about, you know, an international crisis or a national tragedy, or you lost your job. You know, or something happened in your own personal situation. What are we going to do? Are we going to fall to pieces because something hasn't happened the way that we wanted it to? Or are we going to keep our eyes fixed upon God and regard Him? So he says in verse 13, he says, It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. He shall be your fear. Don't fear, man. Look with me at Jeremiah 17 for just a minute. Jeremiah 17, because Jeremiah puts it very well. That's the next book over. Jeremiah 17. By the way, when he talks in here about about, you know that God should be your fear and God should be your dread. He's saying don't live your life based upon. Circumstances. Don't, you know, fear man fear me. Look at Jeremiah 17 in verse 5. Thus says the Lord. Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind. You see, I told you, if you trust in human strength, you're cursed. Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength. Why was Jeremiah saying this? Because what they were doing at this point here is that Israel or Judah was looking to Egypt. for a source of ally. By that time, Syria had already been wiped off the scene. You know, because Jeremiah is writing a hundred years after Isaiah is a theory has already, you know, been done away with. And now what what is Judy is doing is they're looking to Egypt as a source of strength to fight the Babylonians. And he says, if you look to Egypt, if you look to flesh as your strength, he says, you're Cursed, he says. Notice verse 7, though, but blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord, for he will be like a tree planted by the water. You see, the issue is this. What are you going to believe? Are you going to put your confidence in your own wisdom in your own ability? Are you going to think that your nation is the answer? Are you going to think that your own shrewdness is the answer? Now I want to add a little footnote to qualify all of this. I'm not saying that if you, you know, need a job that you just sit at home and say, well, God will provide. No, you get out there and you pound the pavement. You know, you got to you got to do your part. That's human responsibility. But there are certain decisions that you may have in life, certain kinds of decisions that you have to make. And one decision may involve fully going with good biblical principles. And the other decision involves violating biblical principles. But when you look at decision number B, it kind of looks better from a human perspective. Well, I know that, you know, I should do this over here. Option A. But I'm going to do option B because you know what? It looks like a better way to go. It looks easier. And people live their lives like this every day. They choose option B, which is the wrong choice. Because they're violating biblical principles. And to follow option A, it means that you have to trust God. Do you really trust God? Do you really trust Him? Do we really trust Him in this nation right now? Is our nation going to respond with brokenness and repentance and say, Lord Jesus Christ? You know, last night, George Bush, he read from Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. You know, I'm glad he did. He said, this is our God. I respect that. I hope he's really broken and he's looking at our sin and he's praying a Daniel chapter 9 prayer. But what he says right here is this. He says you need to keep your eyes fixed upon God and not upon yourself. As a matter of fact, another article in today's paper kind of interesting. It says notion that America is invincible lies under the rubble. Isn't it true that we kind of see ourself as invincible? Nobody can touch us, you know, and what God says to you and me is, he says, don't trust in yourself. He says you need to trust in the Lord. Him you should regard as holy. He shall be your fear and he shall be your dread. Now question for you. What will be the result if we do this? Notice in verse 14. If you regard God entirely as your source of confidence, verse 14 says, then he shall become your what? Your sanctuary, your sanctuary, your place of safety and haven. But, you know, Pastor, that's too easy. You know, you're just simplistic. Am I really? I don't think so. I think this is true. I believe it. I believe I believe that if we have a situation that that is going to be what we do is we trust in the Lord. He says he will become your sanction. Matter of fact, you know what? To regard as holy, it comes from the Hebrew verb Kaddash and this word over here is Mikdosh, same root word. If you Kaddosh God, if you regard God as holy, he will become your mikdash, your mikdashah, he will become your sanctuary. So what God says is trust in me and I will give you that deliverance. You know, trust in me now. That means that we have to stop relying on ourself. What happens for those who will not who resist God's message? Notice verse 14 for those who do. And by the way, this is in the Hebrew is very abrupt. OK, what happens here is quite abrupt because it says in verse 14, then he shall become your sanctuary and then all of a sudden it changes and it says, but to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over. You know what it says right here? It says for those who continually refuse to listen to God, God has no option basically, but to judge them. For those who harden their heart and stiffen their neck and will not listen, basically it comes to the point where God says, fine, I'll just wipe you out. Okay, you're going to stumble over me. You're going to trip. Proverbs chapter twenty nine verse one. Listen to what it says. It says he who is often rebuked and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed and this without remedy. You know, you speak to somebody and you say, look, man, that's not good. You got to stop that. You know, get off my case. Listen, man, you got to listen to what I'm saying. You got to do this. You know, don't talk to me about that anymore. Listen, you have to start God says, boom, here's what's going to happen. And so what he says here in verses 14 and 15 that he says for these people who just continually hear God's prophet speaking, because God's prophets had been coming to them year after year, one prophet after another, they wouldn't listen. So what's going to happen to both the house of Israel? This Lord is, it says here, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over. Now, it also says here that he will be a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. So, it kind of uses two images. One of them is that it's a rock that you stumble over, and the other is it's a bait and it's a trap. You know, it's like I used to do when I was a kid. I'd get a box, a cardboard box. Would you ever do this? And then you put a stick on it, you know, like in the cartoons and the Roadrunner? You know, and then you get a string and you put a string on it and you put some food underneath the box and you get there and you wait for some animal to come in. You know, I used to like to do that kind of thing and you put the little bait and that's what the word is here right here in verse 14. The snare is actually the bait. That's the bait. And then you've got the trap and you're just waiting. So what happens is for people who reject the Lord of hosts and reject his word and his promises and his prophecies, what they do is they stumble over him. And When they reject it, they end up going for the bait and the bait is self-deception. People who reject the word and reject God's message and reject his witness. What they end up doing is they end up falling for the bait and the bait is that they begin to trust in themselves. They trust in self instead of trusting in God. Listen, how many times does this happen every day? People go to hell every single day. People die and they go into eternal hell because they trusted themselves instead of trusting in God. Now, by the way, I want you to notice something. Keep your place right here, but go with me to the New Testament. I want you to turn to three different places. First of all, turn to turn to Romans chapter nine. Because in the New Testament, this passage, when it talks about a stone to strike and a stone to stumble over, a rock to stumble over, it is quoted several times in the New Testament, and it is applied to Jesus Christ. For example, in Romans chapter 9, in verse 33. Romans chapter 9, verse 33. If you go back a little bit like verse thirty thirty one thirty two thirty three. What should we say Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith, but Israel pursuing a law of righteousness did not arrive at the law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. What did they trust in themselves? Self-righteousness, they thought that their own good works could take them to heaven, so they stumbled just as it is written. Now notice verse 33. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. He who believes in him shall not be disappointed. He who, who's it talking about when he says he who believes in him? Jesus Christ. But where did that verse come from? Isaiah chapter 8, verse 13. So what Paul does is Paul says, you want to know something? Back in Isaiah's day, the people rejected God's word and they did not believe in the Lord. He says, same thing happened again. Same thing happened again. Same old thing. They resist God's word. Now, notice what Jesus says happens to those who reject Him. Go back with me. By the way, well, that same passage is quoted in 1 Peter 2.8, but I want to take you back to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21. Jesus told a story in Matthew chapter twenty one verses thirty three to forty six. What happened is Jesus told a story about somebody. He says in verse thirty three Matthew twenty one thirty three. A landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and then he rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. Now a question for you see that quotation from in verse thirty three. Where does that come from. You know that comes from in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 5. You see, you see Matthew 21, 33 about the vineyard and digging a wine press and building a tower. That is a quotation from Matthew. I mean, Isaiah chapter five, where God talks about Israel. He says, Israel is my vineyard. I planted Israel. I dug a wine press. I did everything for Israel. Israel was God's vineyard. Now, Jesus tells a story and he says, OK, he says, here's the way it works. He says there was a certain man. He had a vineyard. He did everything for it. And then what he did is he put some people in charge of it so that they would be able to, you know, plant some grapes and make some wine for him. And then it says that he came back at harvest time, verse 34. And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to get the produce. And the vine growers took the slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third. Again, he sent another group of slaves larger than the first. And this they did to them again. Verse 37. Afterward, who did he send? his son. And he said they will respect my son, but when the vine grower saw the sun, they said among themselves. This is the air come let us kill him and seize his inheritance, and they took him and they threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him. Now, Jesus says, therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers? The Pharisees who were listening said, well, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and he will rent out the vineyard to other vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper season. And then Jesus quotes Scripture and he says, Did you never read the Scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Psalm 118. This came about from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and it will be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. Now look at verse 44. He who falls on this stone will be what? Broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. So Notice back here now in Isaiah chapter 8, look at verse 14. The stone, OK, the one that they stumble over and the one that they strike. Verse 15, it says many will stumble over them and they will fall and they will be what? Broken. You see, Jesus is taking Isaiah and he says, hey, you guys, you're the vineyard. You're the one who is rebelling and you're the one that's going to be destroyed. That's what Jesus quoted here was that passage in Matthew chapter twenty one. Now, of course, if you come back here to Isaiah chapter eight, there is an immediate context and that's dealing with the disbelief of the people with regard to the Word of God at this point. Now, what is the summary and how do we apply this so far? What we need to do is we need to we need to make sure that when we are facing something that we are not like these people, that we will listen. and that we will respond to God's Word and that we will not end up becoming objects of God's judgment because we resisted his word. You know, if you resist, I'll just tell you this. If you keep putting God off and you keep resisting him, he has a way of getting your attention now versus 16 to 22. We come to our other point. It is this. It's the darkness that comes in the judgment that comes. Here's how it works. God speaks and he gives men an opportunity. Now, when we reject that, We bring judgment. Do you know that three times in Romans 1, have you ever seen verse 24, 26, and 28? There's a little expression. It says that God spoke to them, but they did not listen. Therefore, God gave them over. Three times in Romans 1, it says God gave them over. Verse 24, 26, and 28. And it says that God gave them over, and so the result, it says that they burned in their passions for one another. Men with men, women with women. Romans chapter one. When you have a culture that is given over to homosexuality, you know what it is? It's a sign that men have rejected God's word and God gave them over to judgment. This is the darkness. This is the darkness that comes when you don't listen and God gives you over. Sometimes he lets his wrath work itself out simply by giving you over to your own judgment and you destroy yourself. And this is what you see in verses 16 to 22. Now there's five observations I want to make as we close with this section right here. And the first observation is this. God's Word is a standing witness. Look at verse 16. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. Probably what it's saying right here is this, is that Isaiah recognizes that the Bible is God's truth. And even his own words that he's speaking. It is God's prophetic word. Because if you notice back here in chapter eight, look at verse one. The Lord said to Isaiah, take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters, swift is the booty, speed is the prey. And then in verse two, I will take to myself faithful witnesses for a testimony. So what Isaiah is doing is Isaiah is publicly speaking out God's Word and apparently what you have happening here is that God is going to record these words and it's going to be a standing testimony for everybody to hear so that when Isaiah speaks and says, hey, God is going to act and deliver us. You've got somebody there that's an eyewitness. Yeah, Isaiah said that I heard him. This is exactly what Isaiah said. Now, when you come back to verse 16, what you have is this. He says, bind up the law, bind up the testimony and seal the law. In other words, acknowledge, I guess you could say this, affirm this message publicly so that everybody looks at it and knows that you spoke it. What's the point? God's people stand on God's word. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to say, you know what? I know what God says. I'm going to follow it. I don't care what the outward circumstances look like. I know what the principles of God's work. I am going to stand on it. This is what Isaiah is doing. Isaiah says, you know what? I'm standing. I'm standing on God's word. Now a second observation is this. OK, verse 17. You see Isaiah himself doing this verse 17. I will wait for the Lord who is waiting. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will even look eagerly for him. Isaiah said, you know what? I know that problems are coming. But I'm going to wait on God. I'm going to wait on God. I'm going to trust him. That's like the three. That's like the three guys in Daniel chapter three. Remember their names? Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. And Nebuchadnezzar says, I'm going to throw you into this furnace if you don't worship my idol. They had no choice, OK? They either obey God and die or they disobey God, but get out of the situation. And they said, look, Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us. But even if he doesn't, we're still not going to bow down and worship your idols. And so I guess we're going to have to die. So what they did is they had a choice, and they said, We're going to stand upon trusting in our God. Now, we don't know if God's going to deliver us. Lord, I hope you do. But they said that's the decision we're going to make. And so they stood up. And this is what Isaiah says. Isaiah says, look, he says, I'm going to wait for the Lord. I don't know about you guys, but I want to trust in God to wait means to to wait patiently. And then it says, I will look eagerly. This is the idea of hoping in God, trusting in God. You know, in Psalm 118, it says this. It is better for man to trust in the Lord than to trust in princes. In other words, our confidence isn't in You know our president. I hope our president makes wise decisions, but that's not our hope. It's not in the fact that we have cruise missiles and F-16s and nuclear bombs. Our confidence has to be in trusting in God himself. And Isaiah was willing to do that, and a true believer should be willing to do what is right, simply because it's the thing to do. Isaiah is willing to do that. Now, another observation, verse 18, about God's witness Third observation by God's witness that comes from his spoken word is this God's signs are a testimony that bears witness. God's signs when God gives some kind of sign or prophecy or miracle that is a proof that we should trust in. Look at verse 18. Behold, Isaiah says, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders. Who? Isaiah. And he says the children. Now, some people think this might be talking about Isaiah's disciples, where he's calling his disciples his children. I think it's talking about his physical children. Because Isaiah had one child that's mentioned in Isaiah chapter 7-3. You remember his name? Shear Yeshu, which means, a remnant will return. Isaiah 7-3, a remnant will return. And then God said, Isaiah's a virgin. is going to bear a child and she will call his name Emmanuel God with us. Now, when that child was. So they gave him a second name. And actually, these aren't really their names, as though it's young sucker. You know, Lance, these are symbolic names. And my hair show hush buzz means swift is the booty speedy is the prey. So Isaiah's second child that was born to a young lady that became his wife. He had two names, God with us and swift is the booty speedy is the prey. In other words, these children's names were symbolic of something that God was going to do that God would deliver them and also that there would be an invasion by the enemies, but the God would not let the enemies destroy them. So what Isaiah says here in verse 18 is he says, Hey, I understand something. God is speaking through me and I and my children. We are symbolic. Now, they were symbolic in two ways. Number one, they were symbolic because in that immediate situation, those children were symbolic of the fact that God would not let Israel and Aram defeat them and kill the son of David and take over the Davidic dynasty. God said, I'm not going to let that happen. So they were symbolic for that immediate situation. But what else are they symbolic for? Something much bigger. Christ himself. Because remember, Matthew quotes Isaiah 714, where it says that a virgin will bear a child. That's Matthew 123 at the birth of Christ. And so even in this situation, Isaiah and his two children, they are symbolic for God. They are signs for God's salvation in that immediate circumstance. But the whole thing is a type. It is a picture, a type about Christ himself. I'm not making it up. Look with me, for example, at Hebrews, chapter two. Now, you know that look at Hebrews, chapter two, verses thirteen and fourteen. Now, you know, for example, that Matthew quotes that verse, and he says the Virgin bore a child, and this is fulfilling Isaiah, chapter seven, verse fourteen. But look at Hebrews, chapter two, in verse thirteen. is talking here. We'll go back to Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11. Both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father. According to Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11, who is the one that sanctifies us? That's Christ, OK? He who sanctifies and who are those that are sanctified? Who is made holy? That's us. So, Christ, who makes us holy, and we who are sanctified, all come from one Father, that is, from God. For which reason He, meaning Jesus Christ, is not ashamed to call us His what? His brothers, his brethren, and then he begins to quote some verses here, like in verse 12. He quotes from Psalm 22 and then in verse 13 it says this. I will put my trust in him. Guess what? That's a quotation from Isaiah chapter 8 verse 17. I will trust in him. I will wait on him and again behold I and the children whom the Lord God whom God has given me. See that quote right there? Where did that come from? Isaiah chapter 8 what? Verse 18. So, verse 13 is a quote from Isaiah 8, 17 and verse 14 is a quote from Isaiah, excuse me, verse 13 has the two verses. Verses Isaiah 8, 17 and Isaiah 8, 18 are both quoted right there. Now the point that I'm getting to is this. Is that in this passage right here, Christ is being referred to as a child of God. Right. Because he is a son of God. He is the son of God. But we also are the children of God. And that's why Jesus calls us his brothers. OK, so in this context here is looking at Christ as the son of God, not just an ordinary human being who got saved, but the son of God. So Jesus is called the son of God. When we become believers, we become also children of God, not as he is. But he quotes this verse because we are considered as God's child and the brother of Christ. So guess what? In Isaiah chapter in Hebrews chapter two, verse 13, when it says, I and the children whom God has given me in this case here, God is considered or Christ is that is that one of those sons. So what I'm getting to is that when you go back to Isaiah 8 18 and talks about I and the children whom now has given me this is in fact pointing ahead to Christ. Ultimately, this passage is talking about Christ himself. Furthermore, I want to add a couple notes for you, because if you were witnessing, let's say, for a Jew to a Jew, if you were witnessing to a Jew, you really can't quote the New Testament with him, right? Because they don't accept the New Testament. I believe that Isaiah 714 is talking ultimately about Jesus Christ, that a virgin would bear a child. There's an immediate context that we have to take into consideration. But ultimately, Isaiah 714 is pointing to Christ. I believe also that Isaiah chapter 8, when you have this child, Maher Shalal Hashbas, that same child, that's the Immanuel child, he himself, that child is pointing ahead to Christ. Now, somebody might say, well, no, this is all fulfilled right here. Two thousand years, twenty seven hundred years ago. I say, no, it isn't. You want to know why? Because go over now to chapter nine and notice what you have right here. It talks in verse chapter nine, verse one, there will be no more gloom for her who is in anguish talking about the nation. God says one day there's going to be a deliverance from all of the darkness and the judgment. And he says in verse four, God is going to break the yoke of their burden. He's going to destroy the enemy versus four and five. What is the basis for all of this deliverance and all of this judgment that will come some future day? Verse six, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given. And the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called the wonderful counselor, the mighty God. So you see, Isaiah chapter nine says, hey, this child, we're still waiting for this child. Yes, you had a child born 2700 years ago to Isaiah, and that child served a symbolic purpose. But in itself, that child and Isaiah are still pointing ahead to the one child that will come. I'm throwing a lot of stuff at you. Let me let me go ahead and entertain a question. If you say, wait a minute, you kind of lost me on that. I'm trying to very, very, very difficult. A lot of stuff here to put together. Any questions about about what's going on here? Good. You got it all. This is very, very delicate stuff in terms of interpretation. This is very, very delicate stuff in terms of how we put it all together. But by the way, look at chapter eleven with me as well. In chapter eleven, verse one, then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse. So Jesse was... what relation was Jesse to David? His father and a shoot is like a root that comes off of the, you know, like a feeler root that comes off of the side or off of a stump. If you had a stump of a tree and you cut it down in the spring, you get a little shoot that comes. A shoot is going to come from Jesse, a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Now, notice what happens here, because it's talking about a child that will come from David's family, Jesse's family. Well, the result of it is going to be verse six. The wolf will dwell with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with a kid, a calf and a young lion, and a fatling together, and a little boy will lead them. Cows and bears together, young lions together, lions and oxen together, nursing childs playing by the hole of a cobra, and they will not hurt. Now tell me, has this ever in the history of the human race since Genesis chapter 2 been true? It has not. So you see, Isaiah 11 says, a child is going to come. And when this child comes, he will be the one to accomplish this. So, when you look back at the historical circumstances in Isaiah's time period, when Isaiah had this child through a young maiden that became his wife, that child did not exhaust the message. It's all pointing ahead to the one, namely Jesus Christ. OK. All right. So come back here to Isaiah chapter 8 verse 18. These children, Isaiah says, I and the children whom God has given me are for signs and wonders from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. Verses 19 to 20, a fourth consideration about God's witness. God's people, you, if you are a child of God, you will cling, you will believe in God's witness. Look what it says here. Verse 19. When they say to you, consult the mediums and the spiritists, Now, do we have mediums and spiritists in our own culture? Absolutely. You know what? There's one just down the street here. They've got always these purple neon signs, the psychics, and they come on TV. There's even a TV show, I think, where people are psychics. They have their own TV shows. And so instead of turning to God, they say, hey, we need to go down to the psychic. Hey, what is your horoscope say today? Let's go down and see Madam, you know, Blavinsky, you know, and see what she has to say. And you know what they do? They turn to a cultism and what the occultist would do, whether you're talking about witches or necromancers, people who bring up the dead, what they would do is oftentimes they would chirp. And they would they would talk in ways that were like chirping and muttering. Notice what it says here in verse 19. When they say to you, consult the mediums and the spiritist who whisper and mutter. There is a historical evidence that what they used to do is they used to believe that the dead spoken birdlike whispered voices and this is what I did talk about. We see this from different kinds of writings that come from places in the ancient Near East actual text that they have found historical documents and tablets that they used to make these kinds of sounds sometimes birdlike chirping or muttering stuff like this. And so These things were utterly forbidden. Leviticus 1931, Leviticus chapter 20 verse 6, Leviticus chapter 20 verse 27, Deuteronomy 1811. Absolutely forbidden. God said if you have somebody that does what they're doing, stone them. Put them to death. You know, there's no discussion about it. You die if you go to a cultism. As a matter of fact, remember what happened when King Saul was ruling 1 Samuel 28? Saul knew that God had abandoned him. And so Saul went and he brought up a dead spirit. He brought up Samuel by a witch. And God said, because you did this, you're going to die. You know, it was absolutely forbidden. So what he says here is this verse 19. When they say this to you, consult the medians and the Spiritist. God's reply is this should not a people consult their God. In the Ancient Near East, every people had their own god. You know, everybody did. Babylonians had Marduk. You know, the Egyptians had Ra. And, oh, Isis and Osiris. He says, shouldn't a people at least consult their own god? Should a people consult the dead on behalf of the living? God says you guys are so stupid, because what they're doing is instead of coming to the fountain of living waters, they were going to the dead and they were seeking demons. By the way, I had a footnote for you on this. When you have people like like witches and psychics. I do not believe that those people are bringing up actual dead spirits to bring these demons. These are demons. You know what? Demons love people that go for this kind of thing because a demon can come and a demon can impersonate dead people. A demon can disguise itself as some kind of a dead relative. And so you see your, you know, your grandma Lois and your grandma Lois is saying, Oh, it's so wonderful here. I was all wrong about that religion stuff. You don't need to believe in Jesus. There are many paths. And this is the kind of things that these demons will say is there. There are many paths. And so, what happens is the demons lie to the people, and the people believe it, and the people go to hell because they fail to put their trust in Christ. This is what happens, okay? Now, notice the response of a righteous person, verse 20. Isaiah says, to the law and to the testimony You know what the law and testimony is? It's God's Word. The law is the Torah, the instruction and the testimony. This is God's witness to himself. He says to the law and to the testimony. If they don't speak according to this word, it's because they're not saved. It's because they have no dawn within them. A true believer will trust what God says. In First John, he says in Chapter 4 verses 5 and 6, he says he says anyone who is of God listens to us. John, that's a pretty bold claim that you're making. Yeah, it is. He's a prophet. He's an apostle. He says, anybody that is from God listens to us. He says, if they don't belong to God, they won't listen to us. Jesus said in John chapter 15, he said, if they kept my word, they'll keep yours too. True believers respond to God's word. And that's, by the way, when you talk about people who profess Christ and yet they will not follow God's word. That's why the Bible says you have to treat them like an unbeliever. Because the true believer will respond now. Most of the time it's going to be less than perfectly, you know, unfortunately, but God's people will obey God's Word and Isaiah knows that many people are not going to listen to God's Word. And so God gives an explanation in verse 20. He says if they don't listen, he says it's because they have no dawn within them. Now finally, a fifth observation versus 21 and 22. This fifth observation is this God's judgment brings darkness for those who will not believe. If somebody just resist and rejects and says no, not going to listen. The only result is a final calamitous judgment. Verse 21 talking about the nation of Judah and the fact that when they come to be invaded by a foreign enemy, it says they will pass through the land. In other words, they're going to just go back and forth. You know why they're looking for food. because the enemy invasion came and the whole land has been destroyed. So they're just going to go back and forth aimlessly wandering. It says they will be hard pressed, meaning they will be distressed. They will be famished. They're starving. And it says here that what they're going to do is they're going to get enraged and they're going to start blaming. It says here that they will turn when they were hungry and they will become enraged and they will begin cursing. They'll be cursing. Who are they going to curse? Their king. You stupid. It's your fault. Who did they curse? Their king and then human nature. It's God's fault. They cursed their king and they cursed their God. That's the way it's always been. You know, Genesis chapter 3, it was the woman that you gave to me. That's the way it's always been. Rather than look to ourselves, we look at others. And so what happens is this, okay? They curse, and then finally, in verse 22, they look up and they curse God and they don't get any response there. And so they look down to the earth and things haven't changed. Behold, distress, darkness, gloom of anguish, and they'll be driven away into the darkness. Utter darkness comes. Distress, darkness, gloom, anguish. Men are driven away. Why? Bottom line is this, because they would not listen. They would not listen. So how do we take an all fight to apply all of this to ourselves? Well, when you consider what's happening at this very moment, OK, I don't know who knows where this thing's going to turn out. Who knows if they have more tax plan, you know? I mean, tomorrow morning it might be LAX might be, you know. Very well could be. But. We are not to live like the unsaved person. We are supposed to keep our eyes fixed upon our God. putting our trust in him. Of course, we do our human responsibility in terms of preparation and work and everything else. But you don't fear the kind of thing that the unbeliever fears, and you don't put your confidence in what the unbeliever puts his confidence in. I submit to you that the first thing we should do is we should be on our knees asking God to change our hearts, our hearts, because if we as a nation remember First Chronicles, He says, if my people who are called by my name, 2nd Chronicles 7, 14, I think it is, right? If my people who are called by my name will do what? Will humble themselves, he says, and do what? Repent. That's the idea. That's the root idea. If they will humble themselves, and he talks about seeking my face, Humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. They were coming into judgment. God says, look, all you have to do is turn to me. Confess your sin, put your confidence in me. God can do it. You know, God could stop anything like that. All we have to do is have our hearts right. But instead, want to do that. They put their confidence in flesh. So, anyhow, I think about that in a relationship to what's happening right now. I believe that is the answer for what we need to do is we need to be broken. We need to seek him, not asking for vengeance, but asking for a heart to repent. Father, we thank you for the word that we have in your prophet Isaiah. And I do pray, Lord, that you would Soften our hearts. Begin with us. And give us a heart that is tender and open and sensitive. We pray for all of those people who have been injured and all of the families who have somebody that got killed. And we ask that you comfort them. We pray that you will use this to bring souls to the knowledge of your Son. Use it for your glory, and use it for the good of mankind. Please help us to be a witness at this very strategic time. Lord, a time when we can have good opportunity for speaking the gospel. Give us hearts that are very open to this and zealous and ready to go and share the work done. We ask you for these things in the name of Jesus Christ and for His glory. Amen. Yeah, where?